Kansas Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

Looking for Kansas trivia? Try our list Kansas little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Colwich (pop. 1,229) was named in 1885 by combining the names of the Wichita & Colorado Railway.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

Twin outdoor screens at the Starlite Drive-in in Wichita have been showing movies under the stars since the 1950s.

first appeared: 6/27/2004

The state’s first rails-to-trails project is the 33-mile Prairie Spirit Rail-Trail linking Ottawa (pop. 11,921) and Welda.

first appeared: 6/20/2004

Bethesda Hospital, established in 1899 in Goessel (pop. 565), was one of the nation’s first Mennonite hospitals.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

Elk Falls (pop. 112) is the state’s unofficial outhouse capital with a collection of about 20 privies and a fall tour of swanky ones.

first appeared: 6/6/2004

Modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Rosedale Memorial Arch in Kansas City was dedicated to veterans in 1924.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

Astronaut Ronald Evans, born in 1933 in St. Francis (pop. 1,497), was the command module pilot for Apollo 17 in 1972, the last of the Apollo moon missions.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

The Ensor Farmsite and Museum in Olathe showcases the home radio station of Marshall Ensor, a pioneering amateur radio operator in the 1920s and 1930s.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

Visitors to Moon Marble Co. in Bonner Springs (pop. 6,768) can glimpse an “alien swirl,” just one kind of marble made by co-owner Bruce Breslow in his old-fashioned toy shop.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

Controlled prairie burns in the Flint Hills are a spring ritual that spurs new grass and slows woody brush.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

The world’s largest private collection of memorabilia from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz is displayed at the Oz Museum in Wamego (pop. 4,246). Residents contributed $400,000 to fund the museum, which opened in 2003.

first appeared: 4/25/2004

Black squirrels are protected in Marysville (pop. 3,271), where they are the town mascot. It’s believed that the critters escaped from a traveling carnival in the 1920s and proliferated.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

In 2000, volunteers in Washington (pop. 1,223) built a $90,000 Wizard of Oz-themed playground with castles, tunnels and mazes. The park honors local actors Charles and Jessie Becker, who played roles in the 1939 movie.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

The coolest museum in Andover (pop. 6,698) is the Museum of the American Fan Collectors Association with 350 rare electric fans dating from the 1850s. The fans are on loan to the museum from private collectors.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

The typical resident spends 19 minutes traveling to work, compared with the national average of 25 minutes.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

The state is called the Sunflower State because of the helianthus annuus, or native wild sunflower, that grows profusely within its borders.

first appeared: 3/21/2004

Hard red winter wheat, best for bread-making, was introduced to the state by Russian Mennonite farmers in 1874. Today, nearly one-fifth of all wheat grown in the United States is grown in Kansas.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

In 1958, brothers Dan and Frank Caney opened a pizza parlor in Wichita with $600 borrowed from their mother. The slanted-roof building had limited sign space, so they called it Pizza Hut. Today, the restaurant chain has 12,500 outlets worldwide.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

Hattie McDaniel of Wichita was the first black woman to win an Academy Award—given for her portrayal of Mammy in the 1939 movie Gone with the Wind.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

Cattails are extremely common in the state. A single cattail head can contain as many as 250,000 seeds.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

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